1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hand operated devices for removing an individual segment or several segments of a citrus fruit using a one-handed citrus fruit-segmenting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous patents disclose devices for cutting a segment or segments from citrus fruit. U.S. Pat. No. 2,321,725, for example, illustrates the most basic type of segmenter in which a blade of a single length of flat metal wire is bent to form a loop and the wire is drawn through a segment of the fruit. U.S. Pat. No. 1,794,800 illustrates another type of segmenter in which a single blade is drawn through the fruit to cut a segment or segments. Canadian Patent 4,70,436 illustrates a more complicated segmenter device for removing all of the segments of a citrus fruit simultaneously using a device, which requires two hands to operate the movable scoop relative to the fixed triangular blades. The segmenting device shown in the Canadian patent offers the advantage of slicing a segment or segments and then entrapping the segment by moving a curved movable scoop along the inside surface of the citrus fruit skin until a segment is trapped between the scoop and the fixed triangular cutting blades. However, the Canadian device is cumbersome to use and thus detracts from the desirability of easily removing a grapefruit segment from a grapefruit or an orange segment from a large orange.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,952, issued to Holcomb et al., illustrates a one-hand-operated citrus fruit segmenter whereby a movable scoop is driven into the citrus fruit by the actuation of a pair of finger pads coupled to a rack and pinion drive system. U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,952 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. It has been found that the fruit segmenting device of the '952 patent can be difficult to maintain due to citrus fruit build-up within the gear teeth, may create ergonomic issues with the finger-actuated trigger mechanism, and the mechanical advantage produced by the internal mechanism was less than adequate to force the curved movable scoop completely into the citrus fruit without requiring more effort than desired on the finger actuated mechanism.